(BFM Bourse) – The last week of this month of March, marked by high volatility on the markets, was the good one. Up 0.8% on Friday, the CAC 40 gained 4.4% over the week, driven by a slowdown in inflation in the euro zone and the United States. Over the month, the flagship index rose by 0.75%, bringing its gains to 13.1% since the start of the year.
Stock markets can say thank you to inflation. The Paris Stock Exchange has had a perfect week, with five out of five sessions in the green. The CAC 40 closed this last March session up 0.82% at 7,322.39 points and 4.38% over the week as a whole.
Above all, the star index in Paris managed to end the third month of the year in positive territory (+0.75%). Better still, by gaining 13.11% over the first three months of 2023, the CAC 40 is lining up a second consecutive quarter of growth. However, this scenario was still unimaginable two weeks ago, when the markets were at the heart of the banking crisis.
Prices are calming down on both sides of the Atlantic
These concerns having dissipated in the absence of bad news, inflation and monetary policies were brought back to the good memories of investors. This last session of the week was indeed placed under the sign of the evolution of prices on both sides of the Atlantic.
In the United States precisely, the index favored by the American Federal Reserve in its assessment of the dynamics of prices, showed signs of slowing down. According to the PCE index, inflation slowed down in February in the United States, to 5% over one year against 5.3% the previous month. In underlying data, ie excluding energy and food, the index fell to 4.6% against a consensus of 4.7%.
Earlier in the day, operators took note of the slowdown in the rise in consumer prices throughout the euro zone following the announcement of a similar trend in Germany and Spain.
The annual inflation rate in the euro zone fell in March for the fifth consecutive month, thanks to the lull in energy prices. It stands at 6.9% over one year, after 8.5% in February, according to Eurostat. Note, however, a rise in core inflation (which excludes food and energy prices) to 5.7%, which could lead the ECB to raise its rates further.
“The leaders of the European Central Bank will not dwell too much on the headline rate and will rather worry about the rise in underlying inflation”, comments Jack Allen-Reynolds, analyst at Capital Economics, quoted by the AFP.
Air France-KLM on cloud nine
Air France-KLM ended the week up 4.2%, with several analysts showing their support for the airline, including Deutsche Bank. The design office went on the purchase on the title with a target price of 2.30 euros.
Difficult weekend on the other hand for Sartorius Stedim Biotech (-8.6%) whose plan to acquire Polyplus did not receive the expected reception because it was deemed too expensive.
On the side of more modest capitalisations, Pixium Vision has soared by more than 300%. The US Health Authority has granted Breakthrough Device status to Prima, the bionic vision system for the visually impaired developed by Pixium Vision.
As for the foreign exchange market, the euro lost 0.4% to 1.0864 dollars after the latest statistics of the day. Oil prices are rising. A barrel of Brent from the North Sea for delivery in May rose 0.7% to 79.12 dollars, while a barrel of American WTI for the same maturity gained 0.9% to 74.95 dollars.
Sabrina Sadgui – ©2023 BFM Bourse